Mixing Up The Podium At The Mountain Creek Chevrolet Grand Prix

Wow, that was exciting. It’s amazing what a little Olympic pressure will do for a competition. It was the night of the 1080 again. All three of the male athletes on the podium had at least one solid 1080 in their runs. Shaun and Danny both threw back to back 1080’s Danny did his mandatory straight air off the first hit, firing into a frontside 1080 tailgrab to a Cab 1080, and adding in a frontside 700, and a Haakon flip. Shaun went from his mandatory straight air to a backside five, to frontside 1080, Cab 1080 combo, finishing off with a frontside McTwist to underflip for his fifth competition victory in a row. Yeow! Keir blasted through the pipe chalking up amplitude points, throwing his 1080 in the end.

For the girls, Elena Hight came in hot with back-to-back sevens to a frontside 900. Not bad for a sixteen year old. Gretchen threw down a combination of a crippler nine, fives, a McTwist flip and a frontside nine to reach the first place podium yet again.

Alright people, we’re rounding into the final lap of the three stop/five event U.S. Grand Prix tour, and you know what that means-Olympic Team decision time.

Here’s what we currently know. There are sixteen spots open for U.S. Team riders. Eight of those have already been filled through the World Cup events in the Parallel Giant Slalom, Boardercross, and the first three Grand Prix Halfpipe events.

Those riders already confirmed to the team (in the order they qualified) are:

Men’s Giant Slalom:
1. Tyler Jewell
(Note: no U.S. men qualified for the team, but one spot is guaranteed.)

Do the math, and you’ll see that there’re eight spots left for halfpipe riders: four men and four women. Shaun White and Gretchen Bleiler are already guaranteed a spot on the team. The rest of the spots are still open, After today, these are the rider in the top four standings in halfpipe:

There’s one more Grand Prix Saturday night at Mountain Creek. The field of 23 men and thirteen women will be competing for these four spots. Spots on the team are determined by a rider’s two best finishes in the five Grand Prix events, so technically it’s only halfway done. It’s all very confusing and exciting. Tune back and we’ll have the final names of the U.S, Olympic Team-the guessing game will be over.